Members

Research in my lab is on the evolution and epidemiology of infectious disease in natural populations. Current research questions focus on the role of diseases in determining species range limits, host-pathogen co-evolution, and the evolution of transmission mode. The research combines theoretical modeling with empirical research on sexually transmitted diseases of plants (anther smut) and analysis of datasets involving diseases of organisms ranging from bumble-bees to humans. Antonovics Lab

Laura Barnes is an Associate Professor in Systems Engineering and Data Science. She directs the Sensing Systems for Health Lab. Her research focuses on the design of intelligent systems for understanding the dynamics and personalization of health and well-being. Fusing computational methods with technology such as smartphones and wearables, her group studies how macro and micro-level human behaviors manifest in the wild and how these behaviors relate to health.  Her group's technology and methods have been applied to chronic diseases such as anxiety, depression, cancer, infectious disease, and traumatic brain injury. She received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Institute of Aerospace, Defense Advanced Research Projects, US Army, and private foundations.

Ruth Gaare Bernheim is the William Hobson Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life at the University of Virginia. She holds joint appointments in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the School of Law. Bernheim is the director of the Research Methods Core for the Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (THRIV) where she leads the program to provide high quality biostatistics and regulatory support for clinical and translational research at UVA. She is the founding director of the Master of Public Health Program at the University of Virginia. Bernheim teaches courses in the medical, law, and engineering schools on public health law and policy and ethics, including in the required fourth-year medical school course on health policy. She is director of the Certificate Program in Public Health Sciences for Graduate Medical Education and led university-wide efforts to develop the undergraduate Global Public Health Minor and Global Public Health Major programs. Bernheim served recently as chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Ethics Subcommittee; as a member of the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR), and the National Board of Public Health Examiners; and as president of the Virginia Public Health Association. Bernheim currently serves on the 10-member Board of Councilors of the Council of Education for Public Health (CEPH), the official independent agency recognized by the US Department of Education to accredit schools and programs of public health. Her research interests focus on ethics, law and public health policy, health disparities and public-health community needs assessment.

https://uvahealth.com/findadoctor/profile/catherine-bonham 

Thomas Braciale is a Professor in the Department of Pathology. The Braciale laboratory has had a long-standing interest (over 30 years) in understanding the host response to respiratory viral infection and the role of the host innate and adaptive immune response in controlling virus infection and in producing tissue injury. His research has focused primarily on Influenza A Virus infection and infection with Respiratory Syncytial Virus but has in the past also explored bio defense issues relating to poxvirus infection. The Institute of Global Infectious Diseases represents a novel particularly exciting approach to dealing with the many issues relating to Infectious Diseases including human health, economic development and political instability. The 2009 influenza swine flu pandemic, the emergence of the MERS virus, the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa and more recently the spread of Zika virus infection in South and Central America highlight the importance of this global problem. The approaches envisioned in this initiative represent the appropriate multipronged strategy to deal with Global Infectious Diseases. Dr. Braciale is most enthusiastic about the prospect of this Institute and his participation in its activities.

Michael Brown is a Professor in the Department of Medicine. Dr. Brown’s primary research interest centers on the genetics of host resistance to viral infection and the role of NK cells in virus immunity. This stems from his early work with MHC-linked proteasome subunits and MHC class I antigen processing. His main research goals now are to understand (1) how genetic diversity shapes and regulates both innate and adaptive immune cells/responsiveness to infection, (2) how NK cell features and effector functionality are acquired and programmed by both genetic and environmental influences, and (3) how NK cells/responses to immune stimuli/target cells specifically affects and regulates adaptive immunity. His laboratory has learned that the MHC exerts substantial control over NK cells, and they have developed several valuable mouse models to examine this effect in much greater depth. They recently found that NK cell licensing, which is controlled by cellular MHC I expression patterns, can profoundly affect NK effector functions and their capacity to mediate virus resistance. While the molecular basis of NK cell licensing has not be delineated, this model system provides an outstanding resource and opportunity to identify and characterize the essential molecular determinants required to license NK cells. Thus, Dr. Brown’s research program provides an outstanding opportunity to establish international collaborations and for training future scientists, medical personnel, educators and policy makers. It also adds to the University's integrated portfolio of research in infectious diseases which can lead to additional multi-PI collaborations and grant awards.

Anselmo Canfora founded Initiative reCOVER at the University of Virginia in 2007.  Initiative reCOVER is a research project established to assist underserved populations through partnerships with humanitarian, community-based organizations, professional firms, and manufacturers.  In the classroom and in the field reCOVER promotes a collaborative entrepreneurial interdisciplinary spirit in service of hands-on, design-build learning experiences, and the advancement of building technologies, methods, and materials.  Based on a fundamental philosophy that design and building processes are dialectically interdependent, a building – or the act of building – is not simply considered a result, outcome, or even a product of design, but instead it is promoted as a collaborative effort well informed by thoughtful research, substantive interdisciplinary exchanges, and direct community involvement.  Canfora’s research and teaching center on two recurring themes in the architecture discipline: The tools and craft of building, and the people for whom buildings are made.

Dr. Anna Cliffe is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. Dr. Cliffe investigates the mechanisms of Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 persistence in neurons. Approximately 90% of the world’s population is infected with either HSV-1 or HSV-2. The viruses persist for life in the form a latent infection in peripheral neurons. Periodically the viruses can reactivate to cause disease including genital lesions, keratoconjunctivitis and encephalitis. The Cliffe lab is interested in the unique properties of neurons that permit a latent infection with HSV-1 and HSV-2. Using primary and differentiated neurons along with animal models, they are investigating how neurons sense and respond to HSV infection. In particular, how neurons sense incoming virus at the natural site of infection on the axon and how signals are transmitted to the neuronal nucleus to result in silencing of the viral genome. Although cell stress is associated with reactivation from latency, the mechanism by which viral gene expression is initiated following stress is not understood. The Cliffe lab is investigating the molecular pathways that trigger HSV-1 and HSV-2 to reactivate from latent infection. Neonatal HSV infection is a major public health concern as the risk of encephalitis following transmission of the viruses to the newborn can be as high as 30%. To understand whether changes during maturation of neurons alters their susceptibility to virus infection, the Cliffe lab is examining differences in innate immune responses and HSV infection in neonatal, mature and aged neurons. This work has relevance to other neurotropic viruses, many of which show different outcomes following infection of neonates compared to adults. The long-term goals are to understand how neurons respond to viral infection and how HSV latency is maintained and reactivated. Ultimately, the Cliffe lab aims to develop new therapies to prevent reactivation of HSV-1 and HSV-2.

Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology
School of Medicine  

Dr. Criss’s laboratory investigates how pathogenic microorganisms manipulate the immune system in order to cause disease. The lab’s particular focus is Neisseria gonorrhoeae, an antibiotic-resistant bacterium that infects hundreds of millions of people worldwide each year. Dr. Criss’ research into how N. gonorrhoeae resists killing by human neutrophils at mucosal surfaces uses cell biological, molecular genetic, biochemical, and immunological imaging approaches. The ultimate goal of this research is to identify targets in the host or pathogen for developing vaccines and new antimicrobial agents, while limiting the tissue damage that underlies sterility and other negative outcomes that are associated with the inflammatory response to infection.

Criss Lab Website

Ashley Deeks is an Associate Professor in the Law School, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for National Security Law. Her primary research and teaching interests are in the areas of international law, national security, intelligence, and the laws of war. She has written articles on the use of force, the intersection of national security and international law, and the laws of war. She is a member of the State Department's Advisory Committee on International Law and serves as a senior contributor to the Lawfare blog, one of the leading blogs addressing hard national security issues. She has written extensively about the role of non-state terrorist groups and international efforts to counter terrorist threats. These threats include efforts to obtain nuclear materials and chemical and biological weapons for use against civilian populations.

Isabelle Derré is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology. Dr. Derré uses microbiology, cellular biology and experimental approaches to study molecular mechanisms underlying the interaction between pathogens and their mammalian host. Her laboratory studies Chlamydia trachomatis, a gram-negative bacterial pathogen of tremendous public health concern. Ocular serovars lead to trachoma and genital serovars are the leading cause of bacterial sexually transmitted disease in developed countries. In women, Chlamydia genital infections are often asymptomatic and if left untreated sequelae range from damage of the fallopian tubes, long term pelvic and abdominal pain, ectopic pregnancy and infertility. Since case rates are not declining and reinfection rates are increasing, and since a vaccine is not available, Chlamydia infections remain therefore a global health concern. The Derré group investigates how Chlamydia trachomatis has evolved to manipulate the eukaryotic cell and establish an intracellular niche favorable for survival and replication. Her approaches combine cell biology, molecular biology, microbiology and confocal microscopy techniques together with the newly developed genetic tools for Chlamydia. Overall, the Derré laboratory seeks to further the understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in the infection process to reveal novel drug targets and facilitate the translational research development of tools to prevent, treat and control Chlamydia infection.

E. Franklin Dukes, Ph.D. is a mediator and facilitator with the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia. He founded University & Community Action for Racial Equity (UCARE) to address UVA’s legacy of slavery and white supremacy, leads IEN’s “Transforming Community Spaces” project helping communities transform problematic spaces, led community engagement as a member of the design team for UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, and was a member of Charlottesville’s Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces determining the fate of the City’s Confederate statues. He has worked on numerous health-related issues including drinking water, rural health, and tobacco, and currently assists the Health Equity & Access Rural Region (HEARR) project. He received his Ph.D. from GMU’s School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution in 1992. www.virginia.edu/ien

Joshua C. Eby is Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases. His research focuses on the Bordetella pertussis, host-pathogen interaction. He studies the effect of adenylate cyclase toxin on cells of the innate immunodefense system, with particular interest in neutrophils. Most recently, his group has been taking a fresh look at pertussis pathogenesis using in vivo transposon sequencing and in vivo RNA sequencing. The studies are also lending novel insight into B. pertussis metabolism. Dr. Eby is an Infectious Diseases clinician which informs his research and collaborations.

Daniel Engel is Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology. Dr. Engel’s research focuses on drug discovery for four viruses that are well known global infectious disease agents.  Influenza, dengue fever, Zika fever and Ebola hemorrhagic fever are diseases caused by highly pathogenic RNA viruses that have proven difficult to target for drug discovery. For influenza, the yearly "seasonal" vaccine does not keep up with the constant genetic drift of the virus, or with new pandemic strains. For dengue virus, there are no vaccines or drugs available despite approximately 100 million cases per year worldwide. Ebola virus and Zika virus remain unchallenged by pharmaceuticals.  His laboratory has developed new approaches to identifying chemical inhibitors for these viruses, using the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a test tube. They genetically modify yeast to express specific viral proteins or mammalian host factors. The cells are then challenged with large chemical libraries to identify novel compounds that can inhibit the function of the viral protein or host factor within the yeast cell, and also block virus replication in mammalian cell culture. The mechanisms of action of the compounds are studied using a combination of molecular, genetic, medicinal chemistry and structural biology methods.

Sarah Ewald is an Assistant Professor in Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer in the Carter Immunology Center. Dr. Ewald studies how the immune system balances the need to clear infection with the risk of damage to self. The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii is a master at manipulating this relationship with the immune system to promote persistence. A close relative of Plasmodium sp., the causative agent of malaria, Toxoplasma is possibly the most successful protozoan parasite. Infection is life-long and between 10-30% of the US is infected while the rate of infection in South America and France exceed 80%. Detection of Toxoplasma gondii and other eukaryotic pathogens poses a special problem for the innate immune system since their biology is much more similar to our own than viruses and bacteria. We are also interested in understanding the long-term implications of Toxoplasma infection which includes damage to the fetus during pregnancy, an increasing prevalence of ocular disease in Central and South America, and, in immune suppressed individuals damage to the brain. To complement these studies, Dr. Ewald is developing a micro proteomics technology to study inflammation in primary human cells and tissue biopsies.

Mary Margaret Frank is an Associate Professor of Business Administration and Academic Director of the Institute for Business in Society at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Frank currently serves on the board of directors and as chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Female Health Company/Veru Healthcare (FHC). Professor Frank’s research, teaching and curriculum development involve the intersection of private, government and public sector engagement on societal issues in order to affect change. In order to best accomplish this broader objective, she has initiated a cross-disciplinary agenda at the University of Virginia including a seminar titled the National Debt, a course and pan-university student initiative to address HIV/AIDS, the creation of the P3 Impact Award to recognize outstanding global public-private partnerships, and the Tri-Sector Leadership Fellows program featuring business, law and public policy speakers and issues. These initiatives and her outstanding teaching, innovative curriculum design and leading research have led Frank and her students to receive accolades from leading political figures as well as numerous awards. She believes that solving society’s most complicated problems require talented people from a variety of backgrounds who want to work together for a common goal.

Brent A. French is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering with joint appointments in Radiology and Cardiovascular Medicine. He currently serves the University as a member of the IACUC and SOM as a member of the Promotion and Tenure Committee. In addition, Dr. French serves as Faculty Advisor to the Molecular Imaging Center Core facility administered by the SOM through the Office of Research Core Administration. Dr. French has a longstanding record of accomplishment in a number of fields ranging from ischemic heart disease to gene therapy to preclinical imaging. Each of these fields relate directly to the goals of the institute, given that the pro-inflammatory component of ischemic heart disease is aggravated by infection (particularly periodontitis), that gene therapy shows great promise against infectious disease, and that the longitudinal assessment of most any animal model of infectious disease can be enhanced by preclinical imaging. Among Dr. French’s many collaborations at UVA, the one that synergizes best with this Pan-University Initiative is his collaboration with Kevin Janes (BME) aimed at developing AAV9-mediated gene therapies to treat both the acute and chronic forms of coxsackievirus infection in children and young adults. Among Dr. French’s external collaborations, perhaps the most relevant is the collaboration with Dr. Jurgen Schrader at the University of Dusseldorf aimed at developing novel MRI methods for the early assessment of pneumonia. Other external collaborations of note include close ties (and recent publications) with the R&D arm of AstraZeneca located in Molndal, Sweden.

Kirsten Gelsdorf is the Director of Global Humanitarian Policy and senior lecturer at the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Kirsten brings 19 years of experience working in the humanitarian sector; most recently serving as the Chief of the Policy Analysis and Innovation section at the United Nations Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Her career includes long-term field postings and operational deployments to numerous emergencies including the international responses where she helped coordinate responses to health crises. She also helped develop and promote the policies to link the response to HIV/AIDs, food insecurity, and poverty during the 6-country southern Africa crisis. She has led major policy processes and authored numerous high-profile policy reports documents that have been implemented by Member States and adopted in key UN resolutions. She has been the guest editor of Journal special editions and a Senior Researcher for Tufts University.

Globally an estimated one million children in low and middle-income countries die before their fifth birthday from enteric infections that result in diarrhea. The virulence of the major causes of diarrheal illness in these settings, the protozoan parasites Entamoeba and Cryptosporidium, is highly variable. My hypothesis is that both parasite genetics and host environment factors control the virulent phenotype and my current focus is on the use of molecular methods to identify the approaches that would be most effective in preventing disease.

Don Griffin is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia. He received a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from University of California, Davis in 2006. He earned his Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2011. Dr. Griffin develops biomaterial platforms for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine that combine unique material chemistries, microscale geometries, and novel therapeutic delivery approaches. His research focuses on understanding how acellular scaffolds can control host tissue response and how material-tissue interactions can adapt over time towards equilibrium, including both resorbable and permanent material settings. His macroporous, injectable scaffolds employ both immobilized bioactive components to control surface-cell signaling and soluble signal gradients to control (and promote) tissue integration within the scaffold interior. His research spans basic science discovery to the design of new material therapies. In addition, Dr. Griffin founded a biomaterials-focused start-up company that is growing in San Diego, CA and commercializing the material platform he invented during his postdoctoral research. At UVA, his specific areas of interest include cutaneous wound healing and infection management, vocal tissue rehabilitation, articular cartilage regeneration, and volumetric muscle loss recovery. Dr. Griffin is a past recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Excellence in Graduate Polymer Research Award and an NIH F32 Postdoctoral Fellow.

Richard L. Guerrant, Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine, is Founding Director of the Center for Global Health at UVA, one of the first trans-University Centers for Global Health in the country in 2001, having chaired the Division of Geographic Medicine from 1979 before that.  His longstanding research interest is in enteric infectious diseases. Dr. Guerrant has lived and worked in the Congo, Bangladesh and Brazil. Guerrant edits the major textbook on Tropical Infectious Diseases, among 5 other books, and is author of over 600 original scientific papers, major textbook chapters and reviews, including some 18 coauthored scientific publications with UVA’s 3 Nobel laureates, Gilman, Murad and Marshall. His work is focused on the recognition, diagnosis, pathogenesis, impact and treatment of enteric infections. With colleagues in Brazil, Guerrant’s research documents the effects of and potential solutions for diarrhea and enteric parasitic infections on the long-term physical and cognitive development in malnourished children. He is past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and recipient of its Walter Reed Medal, recipient of the Mentor Award of IDSA (2009), the University’s Distinguished Scientist Award (2009) and its highest honor, the Thomas Jefferson Award in 2010, was named Outstanding Scientist of Virginia in 2012 and was honored by the NFID with the Maxwell Finland Award in 2014. Elected to the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, Guerrant chaired its Board on Global Health (2007-2013) and currently serves on its Forum on Public-Private Partnerships for Global Health and Safety.

Jennifer Guler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology. The Guler lab studies the human infective malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Dr. Guler has a strong background in molecular and biochemical parasitology from her training in some of the premier parasitology labs in the country. The Guler Malaria Lab broadly investigates the mechanisms of antimalarial resistance; they use a variety of innovative tools to understand both genetic and metabolic adaptation by the parasite. This work is highly collaborative, involving partnerships that span the UVa grounds (Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and the Division of Infectious Disease) and beyond (Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda). The lab attracts students from across grounds, generating a vibrant mix of biology, biomedical engineering, and biomedical science backgrounds.

Marie-Louise Hammarskjöld is the Charles H. Ross Professor and Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. She is also the Associate Director of the Myles H. Center for AIDS and Human Retroviruses. She has been working on HIV for more than 30 years, especially in the area of molecular genetics of HIV and host cell interactions. Her work has been continuously funded by NIH and she has made many original contributions to the field and mentored many graduate and post-graduate students. For many years, she was Chair of the UVA Institutional Biosafety Committee and she is now a member of National Science Advisory Board on Biosecurity (NSABB) that advises the federal government on regulation of infectious disease research. During her many years in virology, she has also worked and published on other viruses of global importance, such as EBV and HTLV. Since 2009, she has been involved in a partnership with University of Venda (UNIVEN) in Limpopo, South Africa. This includes collaborative HIV research with the group of Professor Pascal Bessong (a former postdoctoral trainee in the Thaler Center), as well as substantial educational efforts that are aimed at building human capital and research capacity at this historically disadvantaged university. This program is currently funded by a grant from the South African Department of Science & Technology and supports the teaching of a yearly hands-on 2 week workshop for about 30 students at UNIVEN, as well as participation of 2-4 UNIVEN students in the Summer Research Internship Program in the UVA Medical School. In addition, the Thaler Center hosts graduate students from UNIVEN for 12-18 month periods for mentoring and research on joint collaborative projects. In addition to this, Dr. Hammarskjöld is involved in outreach programs with high school students in the Limpopo region. This has included a Jefferson Public Citizen project in 2013, where a team of UVA undergraduates implemented a Molecular Biology/Genetics program at the Vuwani Center, a UNIVEN led outreach center for high school science education.

Tajie Harris is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience. Dr. Harris’ research focuses on how the immune system detects and controls parasitic pathogens that infect the central nervous system, with a focus on Toxoplasma gondii. Her research group uses multiphoton microscopy and other approaches to visualize host-pathogen interactions in the brains of living animals. In 2013, Dr. Harris was recruited to the Department of Neuroscience and the center for Brain Immunology and Glia, a group of investigators from across Grounds that studies the interface between the immune and nervous systems. Dr. Harris is currently performing interdisciplinary research to understand how protective immune responses are coordinated within the brain. Dr. Harris is a member of the Carter Immunology Center and numerous training programs including the Neuroscience Graduate Program, Immunology Training Grant, Infectious Disease Training Grant, Medical Scientist Training Program, and Biotechnology Training Program. Dr. Harris’ research is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Frederick Hayden is the Stuart S Richardson Professor Emeritus of Clinical Virology and Professor Emeritus of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health. Since joining the faculty in 1978 he has undertaken extensive clinical and laboratory-based research studies in therapeutics and vaccines for influenza and other respiratory viral infections. He continues to serve as consultant to multiple pharmaceutical and biotech companies on these topics. In recent years Dr. Hayden has become involved increasingly in international public health activities. During 2006-2008 he served as a medical officer in the Global Influenza Programme at the World Health Organization, Geneva and during 2008-2012 as influenza research coordinator within International Activities at the Wellcome Trust, London. Dr. Hayden chaired the writing committees for two WHO clinical consultations on avian H5N1 and one on pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza and continues to serve as a consultant to WHO on emerging viral infections including avian H7N9 influenza and continues to serve as a consultant to WHO on emerging viral infections including avian H7N9 influenza, MERS-CoV, and Ebola. In 2012-13 he worked with WHO colleagues to develop a new initiative, the Battle against Respiratory Viruses (BRAVE), to foster research on this important public health problem. During his work at the Wellcome Trust he also helped to establish a new federation of clinical research networks called the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC) to improve the clinical research response to respiratory and other emerging infectious disease threats. ISARIC encompasses over 40 academic clinical research networks from 6 continents and has its Coordinating Center at Oxford University. After leaving the Trust he served as the interim chair of ISARIC and remains a member of its Executive Board. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and reviews, and co-edits the textbook Clinical Virology, the fourth edition will be published by the American Society for Microbiology later this year.

Brian Helmke is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Helmke worked studies the fundamental mechanisms of force generation in the glideosomes of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii. His research strategy uses a laser trap transducer to position a microsphere in contact with immobilized parasites and their surface exposed adhesion proteins. Motion of the microsphere within the trap reflects the activity of the actin-myosin complex (and any other force generating components) in the glideosome. His laboratory has exposed a number of exciting features of the glideosome. First and foremost, the glideosome is not intrinsically polar in its force generation; rather, force generation becomes aligned to the long axis of the cell approximately one minute after receptor ligation. They have also shown the reliance of this apparatus on dynamic actin filaments, cytoplasmic calcium, and a lysine methyltransferase identified by Dr. Ke Hu at Indiana University. An important aspect of the research is to identify phenotypic physical behaviors of T. gondii that are associated with actomyosin-based motility and host cell invasion. In particular, cell motility and shape change are being investigated as primary determinants of the ability to invade host tissue. His lab specializes in cellular mechanobiology, with an emphasis on cell mechanics, cell motility, and signaling. Their core technical expertise is in areas of quantitative live-cell microscopy and image analysis.

Eric Houpt is the Jack Gwaltney Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Virginia and is Vice-Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine. He and his group lead studies on the burden of infectious diseases, drug resistance, and emerging infections all over the world. He previously trained at Emory and the University of Chicago, and has worked as a physician and researcher in Papua New Guinea and at the Kilimanjaro Medical Centre in Tanzania. He was awarded the Bailey Ashford Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine, the Oswald Award for Mid-Career Achievement by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is a member of the CDC Advisory Council for the Elimination of Tuberculosis and has been the tuberculosis consultant for the Virginia Department of Health since 2009.

Ku-Lung (Ken) Hsu is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Pharmacology. Dr. Hsu’s research program is focused on developing chemical methods and probes to study the enzymatic, metabolic, and cellular mechanisms underlying immune function in mammalian physiology and disease. His long-term goal is to discover new lipid pathways that can be pharmacologically targeted for boosting host immune responses to infectious diseases and cancer and for treating chronic inflammation. To achieve these goals, Dr. Hsu’s group aims to bridge state-of-the-art chemical biology and quantitative mass spectrometry to enable enzyme, inhibitor, and metabolic pathway discovery in vivo.

Donald Hunt is the University Professor of Chemistry and Pathology. He has received numerous accolades including three distinguished awards from the American Chemical Society, The Thompson Medal, and Protein Society's Christian B. Anfinsen Award. In 2014, he was inducted into the America Academy of Arts and Sciences. Professor Hunt pioneered efforts to develop methods and instrumentation that set the standard for ultrasensitive detection and characterization of proteins and peptides by mass spectrometry. These contributions continue to underpin the whole field of proteomics and have had a dramatic impact on research in immunology, cell signaling, cell migration, epigenetics and cancer. The ability to characterize complex mixtures of proteins, antibody structures, or MHC peptides during infections is essential to many future research collaborations in the Institute.

Kevin Janes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Janes’ expertise lies in experimental and computational approaches for dissecting the systems biology of host-cell responses. Of his many research foci, the one most relevant to the institute is investigation of the cellular signaling that is rewired in cardiac cells following infection by coxsackie B3 virus. Dr. Janes has been recognized as a Pew Scholar, a Packard Fellow, a Kavli Fellow, and recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. He is currently a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science Signaling.

Dean Kedes is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology. Dr. Kedes is a physician-scientist with subspecialty clinical training in infectious diseases. His basic research program focuses on the human oncogenic pathogen, Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV/HHV8). KSHV is the pathogen underlying the most common AIDS-associated malignancy worldwide, Kaposi’s saroma KS) as well as two other B cell lymphoma-like diseases. KS is a global health concern, ranking as the single most common cancer in a number of African nations. Dr. Kedes’ ongoing research program ranges from very basic work, including the determination of the function of individual KSHV encoded proteins and the use of super resolution microscopy (in collaboration with UVA investigator, M. Mitchell Smith) to elucidate the supra structure of the tether linking the viral genome to the human chromatin during latent infection. In addition, his research interests include projects aimed at characterizing primary infection of human tissue with KSHV and the identification of novel potential therapeutics. Over the last 16 years, the Kedes laboratory has pursued basic, translational and applied research projects and has made significant contributions to the field of KSHV biology and pathogenesis. Dr. Kedes is the Director of the University’s Medical Scientist Program, with an average enrollment of over 50 MD/PhD students and requiring the participation and coordination of over 150 faculty members and various members of the University’s upper and middle administration.

Kimberly Kelly is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. The Kelly Laboratory is interested in analyzing how the various biological scales such as molecules, proteins, cells, and structures interact in both normal and abnormal states. They utilize a multidisciplinary approach with expertise in chemical biology, physiology, proteomics, molecular imaging, and nanotechnology to make fundamental discoveries that are linked to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. The Kelly laboratory has been genetically engineering viruses to produce novel nanomaterials, identify pathogenic viruses, diagnose and treat cancer, and develop a method to identify drug resistant mycobacterium tuberculosis. In addition, Dr. Kelly teaches an undergraduate course entitled Nanomedicine (BME 4890), which incorporates focuses of the Institute, specifically therapeutic design and vaccines.

Mark Kester is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Co-director of the NanoSTAR Institute. His laboratory has evaluated nanoliposomes, nanodendrimers and nanocolloids as effective drug delivery vehicles for pharmacological and molecular agents. Relevant to the proposed Institute of Global Infectious Disease, his laboratory focuses on the relationship between sphingolipids and human viruses. By altering the sphingolipid composition of a host cell, viral infectivity is often reduced or eliminated altogether. Dr. Kester has begun to study the mechanistic relationship between influenza virus and the sphingolipid composition of human cells. Preliminary data indicate that specific sphingolipids may serve as promising targets to halting the viral infection. Their goal is to formulate a sphingolipid based nanoliposome that works synergistically with current anti-flu medications, such as Tamiflu.

Glynis Kolling is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine, and is also a member of the Center for Global Health, the Institutional Biosafety Committee, and the UVA Fecal Microbiota Transplant Program. As part of the Center for Global Health, she has helped to mentor trainees from Brazil and Africa on projects related to enteric infections. She has extensive expertise in microbiology, bacterial pathogenesis (i.e., enterohemorrhagic E. coli, enteroaggregative E. coli, and Clostridium difficile), microbial communities, and applying host systems for understanding the host-microbial interface. Dr. Kolling maintains trans-disciplinary and cross-Grounds collaborations with academic and clinical faculty in Biomedical Engineering, Biology, Geriatrics, and Gastroenterology.

Department of Economics

College of Arts & Sciences

Anton Korinek is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, Department of Economics and Darden School of Business as well as a Research Associate at the NBER, a Research Fellow at the CEPR and a Research Affiliate at the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute Centre for the Governance of AI. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2007 and has also worked at Johns Hopkins and at the University of Maryland. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University, the World Bank, the IMF, the BIS and numerous central banks.

His areas of expertise include macroeconomics, international finance, and inequality, with special focus on the effects of artificial intelligence. His most recent research investigates how to weigh economic and epidemiological concerns in responding to COVID-19 - in short, there is no trade-off between lives and livelihoods because people need to feel safe to start spending again. He also shows that there are significant externalities from individual behavior that call for public health interventions. In other work, Korinek analyzes the externalities that give rise to antimicrobial resistance - for example, feeding antimicrobials to livestock imposes costs on society by fostering the growth of resistant bacteria.

www.korinek.com

Gerard P. Learmonth Sr. is Research Professor in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He is the founding director of the Center for Leadership Simulation and Gaming and the Center for Large-Scale Computational Modeling, a Data Science Institute Center of Excellence. His work involves the modeling and simulation of large, global environmental, economic, and social challenges. These comprehensive, data-driven simulation models may be linked with role-playing interfaces to create serious games for learning. His current effort is the design and development of a Global Food Security Game. In conjunction with the UVA Center for Global Health, Dr. Learmonth conducted in-country research on the effects of poor water quality on the growth and development of children in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The research involved a mobile phone-based census of several villages in Limpopo and the subsequent development of a simulation model used to test the efficacy of proposed water quality interventions using a virtual population developed from the census data. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine and a courtesy appoint in the Department of Systems and Information Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Manuel Lerdau is a Professor in the Environmental Sciences Department with a joint appointment in the Biology Department. He specializes in evolutionary and community ecology, with a special interest in competitive, mutualistic, and reproductive relationships among organisms and how these relationships mediate population and community dynamics. He has used both evolutionary and ecological models to explore the links among diversity and functional traits. His recent efforts include studies of reproductive flexibility, population dynamics and biodiversity; genome-scale evolutionary change and the origin of functional traits; and competitive interactions in the face of environmental stress. These approaches are relevant for studies of competition and community dynamics among pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes, the maintenance (or degradation) of microbial community diversity, and the evolution of novel traits (e.g., hyper-pathogenicity) among microbes. Lerdau is particularly interested in examining how two types of ecological interactions, competition and mutualism, affect community structure. For example, in the case of gut communities, how might some taxa compete for similar resources while others use degradation products as energy sources. Lerdau’s initial theoretical work in this area suggested that secondary metabolic products would be the loci of interesting interactions at the community and system scale, and this idea could be relevant also for microbial systems. In terms of infectious diseases, those that emerge from complex communities such as gut-based illnesses will be very amenable to the above ideas.

I am a computational epidemiologist with 20 years of experience in crafting, analyzing, and interpreting the result of computational models in the context of public health problems.  My research has focused on understanding the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases within specific populations through both analysis and simulation.  Throughout my career I have acted as a liaison between computer scientists and mathematicians developing new software tools and decision makers demanding answers to their pressing public health policy and response questions.  I draw on my experiences in rural Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer and epidemiologist at the California department of health to keep experiments and analyses grounded in the real-world. Recent projects span infectious disease forecasting, real-time infectious disease outbreak support, complex disaster planning and response, and realistic synthetic data generation. These areas of research are driven by a constant stream of supporting specific case studies for decision makers at the federal level.

https://biocomplexity.virginia.edu/bryan-lewis

Garrick Louis is an Associate Professor of Systems & Information Engineering, with courtesy appointments in the Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering and Society, in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research goal is to build local capacity for sustained access to safe, reliable, and affordable water and sanitation services to under-served communities. The work develops methods for needs assessment, performance evaluation/gap analysis, and strategic resource allocation for sustainable (small) infrastructure and disseminates examples of best practice in these methods. The work is pursued through a consortium of collaborators from academia, the service industries, government agencies, grassroots organizations and funding agencies.

Barbara Mann is an Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine. Dr. Mann’s research expertise is in the pathogenicity of bacteria and parasitic diseases. Dr. Mann has worked extensively on the virulence mechanisms of the tropical enteric parasite Entamoeba histolytica. Her work on this parasite has included characterization of the major adhesin that mediates host attachment, vaccine studies, and work that led to the development of a diagnostic test. Dr. Mann, along with Dr. William Petri, received UVA’s Inventor of the year award for the invention that led to the production of a commercially available diagnostic kit for E. histolytica infection. Dr. Mann is co-director of two NIH training grants, Infectious Diseases and Biodefense and Emerging Infections, which support predoctoral and post-doctoral trainees. Dr. Mann is also chair of the Institutional Biosafety Committee, which is responsible for approving all research involving biohazardous material at UVA and has expertise in biosafety level three protocols and containment.

Achla Marathe is a Professor at the Biocomplexity Institute, and at the Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine, at the University of Virginia. She is a member of the Networks, Systems Science and Advanced Computing Division at the Biocomplexity Institute. Achla Marathe received her BA (Honors) in Economics from Delhi University, India, and a MS and PhD in Economics from the University at Albany, New York. Her research provides insights in controlling infectious disease outbreaks, identifying vulnerabilities and dependencies in infrastructural networks, and in planning for natural and human-initiated disasters. She has been using data analytics and data mining tools to address a variety of social and economic problems that include designing interventions to reduce health disparities; understanding feedback and coevolution between health behaviors and disease spread; social and economic effectiveness of interventions; and allocation of scarce medical resources. She develops computational models that measure economic and social impact of actions by decision-makers, individuals or cohorts, and provide ways to predict how policy will influence human behavior and vice versa. Before joining UVA, she was a Professor at Virginia Tech and the Lead Economist and Social Scientist at the Network Dynamics and Simulation Science Laboratory at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. Prior to her tenure at Virginia Tech, she worked at the Los Alamos National Laboratory for ten years, initially as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a technical staff member. She also served as a consultant at the World Bank.
 

Joann M. McDermid is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health in the School of Medicine. As a registered dietitian, Dr. McDermid's research interests are focused on understanding complex relationships between malnutrition and infection diseases in a global context. Dr. McDermid has lived in The Gambia where she conducted research on host iron metabolism as a determinant of HIV-1 and HIV-2 mortality and tuberculosis susceptibility. Dr. McDermid has led studies characterizing the evolution of mature breast milk immunology, the consequences of maternal and fetal inflammation on growth outcomes, as well as identifying nutrition-related and other risk factors for maternal and early infancy Cryptosporidium infection using a maternal-infant mixed HIV-status cohort she established in the Kisesa region of northwestern Tanzania in conjunction with collaborators at the Mwanza Research Centre of the Tanzanian National Institute for Medical Research and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Since joining UVA in 2015, Dr. McDermid has expanded her research directions in infant health and development as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates-funded ELICIT (Early Life Interventions for Childhood Growth and Development in Tanzania) clinical trial set in rural Tanzania, and is developing a new line of inquiry examining breast milk immune cell transfer and infant outcomes with collaborators at INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale) in Montpellier, France.

Christian McMillen is professor of history and the author of three books, Making Indian Law, Discovering Tuberculosis: A Global History, 1900 to the Present, and Pandemics: A Very Short Introduction. He regularly offers classes on the history of epidemics and pandemics, as well as American Indian history. He is currently working on a book on the history of global efforts to provide clean water and sanitation to the billions without either.

Wladek Minor is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics. Dr. Minor’s laboratory investigates the structures of many protein targets that are important in infectious diseases. Their long-standing experience in developing tools for macromolecular crystallography tremendously benefits this endeavor. Dr. Minor is a member of NIAID Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID) http://www.csgid.org/. Dr. Minor has developed and commercialized multiple large software packages for processing x-ray diffraction data and managing molecular structural databases, which have become the most frequently used software systems in protein crystallography. The papers describing these methods have now been cited over 30,000 times and the 1997 Methods in Enzymology paper is the 23rd most cited paper of all time, and the 7th most cited publication of the last 20 years. The data management systems LabDB and Unitrack, which track experimental details of protein production, structure determination and biochemical characterization pipelines from clone to refinement, may have tremendous long-term impacts on structural biology. Both systems may play a critical role in improving experimental reproducibility—the cornerstone of scientific research upon which all progress rests. The system tracks millions of experiments on tens of thousands of targets and uses methodologies that have more recently become known as “Big Data” techniques. Metal coordination in protein structures are analyzed in “CheckMyMetal”, which validates metal identification and refinement.

Christopher C. Moore is an Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, Department of Medicine. Dr. Moore’s research involves studying sepsis pathophysiology with particular interest in the role of the innate immune system and sepsis pathophysiology, management, and outcomes of HIV infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa. He has written recently about the outcomes of patients with severe sepsis in Uganda as well as the immune response to experimental sepsis. In addition, he studies meningitis, tuberculosis, and malaria with partners in Uganda at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST). He is a co-investigator on an NIH supported grant for work in tuberculosis and a training grant that includes work in malaria that both take place in Uganda. He has created a memorandum of understanding between UVa and MUST which allows for students, trainees, and faculty to collaborate freely between both universities.

Cameron Mura is a Senior Scientist in Phil Bourne's Computational Biosciences Lab, based in the Dept of Biomedical Engineering and School of Data Science at UVA.  Mura's scientific background is mostly in biochemistry, crystallography and molecular simulations, and his main research interests are in the areas of structural biology, molecular biophysics and computational biology, particularly as regards the evolution of RNA-associated molecular machines, biomolecular assemblies, protein folds, and protein-protein interactions. More recent interests have included the data sciences and its attendant approaches (e.g., deep learning and other machine learning paradigms), chiefly as applied to the aforementioned scientific domains. Further information is available at http://bournelab.org.

Robert Nakamoto is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics. The Nakamoto laboratory uses biochemical, kinetic, thermodynamic and biophysical approaches to elucidate the structure-function relationships of coupling mechanisms of active transporters. Currently, they are focused on the molecular mechanisms of the P-type ion transporting ATPases, the ABC-type multiple drug resistance transporters, the FOF1 ATP synthase and the TonB-dependent outer membrane iron transporters. They specialize in functional expression of proteins in native membranes and develop methods to measure transport activity in whole cells, membrane vesicles or reconstituted systems. They use mutagenic and chemical modification approaches to modulate reaction steps of transport mechanisms. In particular, they have exploited intramolecular disulfides to stabilize transport active conformations that cannot otherwise be trapped. They also use cysteine scanning for placement of spectroscopic probes to explore protein dynamics and conformational shifts during transport cycles. Of interest to the Institute of Global Infectious Disease are the multiple drug resistance transporter, which also appear in pathogenic bacteria, and the outer membrane transporters which are recognized by host immune responses and act as the receptor and import pathways for colicins and bacterial phages.

Amanda Nguyen is an Assistant Professor in the Curry School of Education with a public health background and expertise in global mental health. Her research takes a partnership-based approach to improve the health and wellbeing of young people growing up in low-resource settings, leveraging both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine risk and protective factors, identify and describe psychosocial problems, validate assessment instruments, and evaluate interventions.  With a primary focus on mental health, Amanda’s work intersects with infectious disease research through considerations of how poor mental health may increase risk of physical health problems due to impaired functioning, as well as how physical health problems may negatively impact mental health and wellbeing.  She is also interested in how various health and mental health problems may be perceived differently across cultures and contexts, with implications for accurate assessment.  Recent work has included examining patterns of post-natal distress symptoms in Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam, understanding maternal perspectives on mental health priorities and help-seeking behaviors in Uganda, and exploring the impacts of peer victimization cross-culturally.  Amanda is currently collaborating on multiple research initiatives including scientific evaluation of psychosocial programs in humanitarian settings, accurate assessment of depression in areas with high physical comorbidities, risk and resiliency among conflict affected youth, and interventions to prevent behavior problems among indicated youth.

Shayn Peirce-Cottler is Professor of Biomedical Engineering with secondary appointments in the Department of Ophthalmology and Department of Plastic Surgery at the University of Virginia. She received Bachelors of Science degrees in Biomedical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics from The Johns Hopkins University in 1997. She earned her Ph.D. in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2002. Dr. Peirce-Cottler develops and uses computational models, in conjunction with novel experimental assays, to study complex, dynamic, and multi-cell biological systems. Her research focuses on understanding how heterogeneous cell behaviors and their interactions enable tissues to adapt over time, during physiological growth and in response to disease. Her multi-scale computational models employ agent-based modeling to bridge protein-level mechanisms with tissue-level, functional outcomes. Her research spans basic science discovery to the design of therapies for regenerative medicine. Specific areas of interest include acute and chronic inflammation, macrophage infection by pathogens, arterio-venous patterning, and the role of stem cells in orchestrating tissue regeneration. Dr. Peirce-Cottler is a past recipient of MIT Technology Review’s “TR100 Young Innovator Award” and the National Biomedical Engineering Society’s “Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award”. She was recently elected into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows.

www.peircecottlerlab.com

William A. Petri is the Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Medicine. Dr. Petri has pioneered work on enteric infections and their consequences in children in low income countries. His work on amebiasis is seminal: he identified the Gal/GalNAc-binding lectin of the parasite E. histolytica that mediates contact-dependent killing of host cells, and engineered the genetic tools to validate the lectin’s role in pathogenesis and to develop both diagnostics and a potential vaccine. His latest work in Nature describes the “trogocytosis” (biting) mechanism by which amebae invade tissue. His FDA-approved antigen-detection tests now allow sensitive and specific diagnosis of amebiasis, and his 10-year study of 300 children in Bangladesh identified acquired immunity associated with mucosal IgA anti-lectin immune responses. Dr. Petri further discovered that susceptibility in children to amebiasis is due to a mutation in the leptin receptor, linking nutrition to immunity. Dr. Petri's research additionally includes the pathologic innate immune response to Clostridium difficile and the study of environmental enteropathy and its impact on child health in low income countries. Dr. Petri has mentored 14 PhD students, 20 fellows and 4 visiting professors, many of whom are preeminent Global Infectious Diseases research leaders.

Our lab develops methods based on microfluidic culture systems, bioanalytical techniques, and spatially resolved simulations to quantify the spatiotemporal dynamics of the inflammatory cascade and develop targeted therapies. This work is part of a broad interest in the dynamics of complex biological systems. Specifically, we study the kinetics of immunity and inflammation, and we develop chemically targeted methods to control these processes in the context of vaccination, autoimmunity, and chronic inflammatory disease. Pompano Lab Website

Philip Potter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and director of the National Security Policy Center in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on foreign policy, international security, and militant violence. He has recently published articles in International Organization, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Conflict Resolution, and the Annual Review of Political Science, among other journals. His recent book, War and Democratic Constraint (with Matthew Baum), a CHOICE outstanding academic title, is available from Princeton University Press. Professor Potter is a principal investigator for a Minerva Initiative project to map and analyze collaborative relationships between terrorist organizations. He regularly consults for the Department of Defense and intelligence community and is a University Expert for the National Ground Intelligence Center. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics and the Journal of Global Security Studies, and is an Associate Principal Investigator for Time-Sharing Experiments in the Social Sciences (TESS).

David Rekosh is Professor of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, the Myles H. Thaler Professor of Medical Science and Director of the Myles H. Thaler Center for AIDS and Human Retrovirus Research. He has been working on HIV molecular biology since 1985, with continuous grant support from NIH and has made many fundamental and important discoveries about HIV and retrovirus gene regulation Since 2005, he has been involved in work in South Africa in collaboration with Dr. Pascal Bessong, at the University of Venda (UNIVEN). Through this work they have been defining the types of circulating HIV found in Limpopo province and examining emerging drug resistance. This has included work with a study cohort of about 700 HIV infected individuals at an HIV clinic in the Bela-Bela township and developing relationships with other clinics and hospitals in Northern South Africa. This collaborative project has also involved him in the training South African students in his laboratories at UVa and he is also has become an active mentor of students working in Dr. Bessong’s lab at UNIVEN. Additionally, since 2010, he has been involved in capacity building and science education at UNIVEN, where he has annually organized and taught a two-week laboratory workshop and lecture series in molecular biology to honors undergraduate students and graduate students. He also has taught students from the secondary schools of Limpopo province, South Africa, through his work with the Vuwani Science Resource Centre, a science outreach Centre at UNIVEN. This work has included mentoring a University of Virginia Jefferson Public Citizens group consisting of 4 undergraduates and a biochemistry graduate student, who taught at the Centre for 10 weeks in the summer of 2013.

Stephen S. Rich is Harrison Professor of Public Health Sciences and Director of the Center of Public Health Genomics. Dr. Rich has a background in genetic epidemiology and statistical genetics, genome sciences and applications of genomics to complex human disease. As Director of the Center for Public Health Genomics, he is responsible for the research, education and service of over a dozen resident faculty in the Center, developing their independent research programs in molecular genetics, statistical and population genetics, and computational biology. Dr. Rich also oversees the Center’s Genome Sciences Laboratory, which serves as a focus on modern genomic technology that is used by resident faculty and in collaboration with affiliated faculty and others across the School of Medicine and across Grounds. Dr. Rich’s collaborative research has included a genome-wide association scan for loci contributing to the failure to respond to dietary supplementation in the context of malnutrition. Each of these efforts brings together faculty from across the University as well as national and international consortia for interdisciplinary research, including the Type 1 Diabetes Genetics Consortium, the Exome Sequencing Project, and the Trans-omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program.

PLACEHOLDER

Rebecca Scharf is a developmental pediatrician at the University of Virginia’s Center for Global Health. She is interested in the care of children with disabilities around the world. Clinically she directs four clinics at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital: 1) Myelomeningocele, 2) Pediatric Muscular Dystrophy and Neuromuscular Disorders, 3) Neurodevelopmental Outcomes of Congenital Cardiac Disease and 4) International Child Development. With regards to educational responsibilities, Dr. Scharf has the privilege of teaching first year medical students about malnutrition, medical complexity and child development. Dr. Scharf’s research involves examining the developmental outcomes of early childhood malnutrition and enteric disease. She examines interactions between infectious diseases, malnutrition and environment, and studies how these relate to early childhood growth and stimulation. She is interested in finding ways to promote early childhood development so children have the opportunity to thrive and reach their full potential.

Heman Shakeri is an Assistant Professor in the School of Data Science. His research revolves around studying structure and function of complex interconnected systems and networks. Dr. Shakeri is interested in developing data-driven solutions to characterize temporal interactions of antimicrobial resistance within and between bacterial species and optimizing strategies to mitigate/boost spreading processes/behaviors in heterogeneous populations.

John R. Shepherd is a social anthropologist with interests in population history, anthropological demography, disease history, Chinese societies, and the social history of Taiwan. His current research with relevance to Global Infectious Diseases includes the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic in East Asia and the role of smallpox variolation and vaccination in the control of smallpox in late 19th and early 20th century Taiwan. Previous publications include historical demographic studies of trends in and regional variation in causes of death and mortality in early 20th century Taiwan, high fertility and maternal and infant mortality in early 20th century Taiwan, marriage and abortion practices among the Austronesian Siraya of Taiwan in the 17th century, and the impact of sojourning on demographic characteristics of Chinese immigrant populations. Dr. Shepherd’s courses include Anth 3130/7130: Disease, Epidemics and Society, and Forum 1500: Epidemics.

Costi Sifri is an infectious diseases physician and Hospital Epidemiologist for the UVA Health System (UVAHS). His research program is focused on exploring the molecular and clinical epidemiology of transmission of multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs) in the hospital environment and the development of novel intervention strategies to reduce or halt their spread. Working with Dr. Amy Mathers and multiple UVAHS partners, his group has used a combination of classic epidemiologic investigation and innovative genetic and genomic tools to describe the institutional and regional emergence of CRE. As the UVHS Hospital Epidemiologist, Dr. Sifri is also responsible for lead preparedness and planning effort for the Health System for emerging infectious diseases of significant epidemiologic importance, such as Ebola virus disease. Due to their very nature, emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola and Zika represent numerous opportunities for international research collaboration and training. As one example, Hospital Epidemiology worked with the UVA Center for Telehealth to develop in-hospital telemedicine for patients admitted to the UVA Special Pathogens Unit with suspected Ebola virus disease. The Institute of Global Infectious Diseases would enable Dr. Sifri, his research group, and the Office of Hospital Epidemiology to continue to pursue important questions regarding the emergence and spread of MDROs around the globe. In addition, Dr. Sifri anticipates this infrastructure could be leveraged for research and education efforts directed towards emerging infectious disease as they arise around the globe, especially those that have the risk of becoming epidemiologically important in Virginia, such as Ebola, MERS-CoV, or most recently Zika virus.

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, School of Medicine

Lindsay Somerville is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and the Associate Director of the adult Cystic Fibrosis (CF) medicine program. She is a physician-scientist based in Dr. Tom Braciale’s lab in the Carter Immunology Center. Her research focuses on infection-mediated acute lung injury, especially virology, and the processes that lead to loss-of-function. Her clinical research includes infection surveillance monitoring in CF and non-CF bronchiectasis. She is currently investigating cell-cell signaling and the effects of influenza virus on human alveolar macrophages and alveolar epithelial cells, and is currently developing a model to investigate in vitro inflammatory mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and private foundations.

https://uvahealth.com/findadoctor/profile/lindsay-a-somerville

Sana Syed is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology. Dr. Syed has recently joined the University of Virginia faculty after completing fellowships in Pediatric GI (Emory) and Advanced Nutrition (Boston Children's/ Harvard Medical School). The long-term goals of Dr. Syed's research work are to understand intestinal function in the setting of poor oral vaccine immunogenicity and recurrent enteric infections in undernourished children living in low- and middle- income countries. Prior and current global projects include: 1) Investigation of biomarkers of gut function in infants at risk of growth faltering in Tanzania and Pakistan, her fellowship project mentored by Drs. Chris Duggan (Boston) and Asad Ali (Pakistan); and 2) SEEM, a collaboration with PIs Drs. Sean Moore (UVa) and Asad Ali (Pakistan) at the Aga Khan University in Karachi to define the etiologies and histopathology of environmental enteropathy among a birth cohort in a rural village in Pakistan.

Dr. Gang Tao is a professor in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UVa. His research is mainly about dynamical systems analysis and control. Motions of dynamical systems are described by the trajectories of their state variables which satisfy certain differential equations called dynamical equations. Many engineering systems are studied as dynamical systems, such as aircraft, ships, automobiles, electric systems, robots, whose dynamics determine their behaviors under the influence of external inputs and their initial states. Many infectious diseases have been studied in terms of their dynamics, such as the dynamical behaviors of the HIV, Hepatitis B, Zika, and H1N1 viruses, whose state variables and behaviors can also be described by certain dynamical equations. System analysis studies certain characterizations and properties of dynamical systems. System control studies how to change system behaviors by applying input signals. Feedback control makes use of the system state information to generate the control signals. Feedback control is able to modify the system dynamics to achieve desired system behaviors, which has played the most important role in modern control systems. Researchers have employed feedback control techniques for medical applications, for example, using system modeling and control methods to help treating certain infectious diseases, which has made encouraging progresses. 

Dr. Gang Tao and his collaborators and students are interested in developing feedback control theory and design techniques for systems whose parameters and structures are uncertain. Such adaptive control theory and techniques have potential for application to treatment of infectious diseases whose characteristics are often uncertain.

For more information about their research, please visit 

http://www.people.virginia.edu/~gt9s

https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/gang-tao

Sebastian Tello-Trillo is an economist whose research focuses on how policies affect individuals’ health behaviors and economic outcomes. His areas of interest lie within Health Economics, Econometrics and Development Economics.

Tello-Trillo received his Ph.D. in Economics from Vanderbilt University and holds a B.S in Pure Mathematics and Economics from Florida State University. Prior to his studies at Vanderbilt, he was a project associate for Innovations for Poverty Action.  Tello-Trillo was born and raised in Lima, Peru.

Michael Timko is Professor of Biology and the Director of the Echols Scholars. Dr. Timko’s research interests are broadly instituted in understanding the molecular and biochemical processes governing host- pathogen/parasite interactions across organisms. His lab’s work involves analysis of both plant and human pathogens and seeks to not only understand the biology of the process of their interactions but to develop prophylactics to prevent or disrupt host invasion, to identify therapeutics to treat the host to support re-establishment of normal physiological states, and to understand how to prevent re-occurrence. They have worked on the development of small molecules and probiotics to treat enteric diseases and prevent illness, and they are currently working on questions related to the role of the microbiome in disease progression. Finally, they are looking at plant and microbial based therapeutics for prevention and treatment of disease and illness created by pathogen and parasite attack. Dr. Timko’s work has impact on plant health, food security, nutritional balance and human health.

Sankaran Venkataraman ("Venkat") is the MasterCard Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. He is a member of the Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Ethics area at Darden and teaches MBA and executive level courses in strategy, entrepreneurship, and ethics. He is a faculty in numerous executive education programs at Darden and the Indian School of Business, and is on the faculty team of The Executive Program. He is an internationally renowned scholar and educator in the field of entrepreneurship. He has published extensively and has lectured around the world. The Academy of Management, the largest professional body of management educators in the world, has recognized his research by awarding him the inaugural IDEA award for Foundational Research in entrepreneurship and, in 2010, the Academy of Management Review (a leading journal of the Academy) cited one of his papers as the most influential in the past decade from among the papers published in that journal. He consults with Fortune 500 firms as well as several small companies. He facilitates strategy discussion for firms and is and advisor to firms, universities and government organizations. He has been a speaker for and advisor to the Entrepreneurial Forum, a program of the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce aimed at promoting trade through entrepreneurship around the world.

https://biocomplexity.virginia.edu/person/anil-vullikanti 

Judith White is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology. Dr. White’s laboratory has studied enveloped virus entry into cells for over 30 years. They have helped unravel this process—a key target for anti-viral intervention—in the cases of influenza virus and a model retrovirus. Since 2006, Dr. White’s group has been working on the entry process of Ebola virus (EBOV) and more recently, Lassa fever Virus (LASV). Both are listed as category A priority pathogens by the NIH, and both are listed by the WHO as “top emerging diseases likely to cause major epidemics” based on a meeting of experts held in Dec. of 2015. EBOV is notorious for causing the devastating outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) that occurred in West Africa in 2014-2015. Although only rough, the estimated number of LASV infections per year (also in West Africa) is 100,000 to 300,000 with 5,000 deaths/year (CDC website). It is further estimated that between 10% and 16% of patients admitted to hospitals in certain areas of Sierra Leone and Liberia are infected with LASV. At this time there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for either viral disease. Dr. White’s laboratory is conducting both basic and translational research on EBOV and LASV, by probing mechanistic aspects of virus entry as well as participating in drug discovery efforts aimed at finding “practical” drugs to use as prophylactics and/or therapeutics for patients (and their contacts) stricken with either EVD or Lassa Virus Disease (LVD). “Practical” drugs are relatively low cost to develop, manufacture, deliver, and administer in resource-limited areas as in West Africa. Given the overlapping geographic distribution of EVD and LVD, their similar presenting symptoms, as well as similarities in the entry processes and replication strategies of EBOV and LASV, an over-arching goal is to identify a drug (combination) efficacious against both EBOV and LASV.

Michael Wiener is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biological Physics, School of Medicine. His research has focused upon structure/function studies of two membrane protein systems highly germane to infectious disease, primarily using x-ray crystallography. One is an active transport system responsible for uptake of large and/or scarce nutrients, particularly iron-containing molecules, across the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria. The other is the human membrane-bound protease ZMPSTE24, which was very recently determined to have an additional non-enzymatic role as a broad-spectrum viral restriction factor, effective against multiple enveloped endocytosed viruses. The Wiener lab determined the novel structure of ZMPSTE24 and is characterizing its fascinating kinetics. His lab is conducting viral fusion studies with purified ZMPSTE24 to understand its molecular basis of antiviral function. Both the bacterial transport system and ZMPSTE24 are potential targets for therapeutics to treat prominent bacterial and viral infections.

Martin Wu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts & Sciences. He has a broad background and training in microbial genomics, metagenomics and large-scale sequence data analysis. Using high throughput 16s rRNA sequencing and applying microbial evolution and ecology theory, Wu’s laboratory has been investigating how microbes as a community respond to host and environmental changes. Of particular relevance to the Institute in Global Infectious Disease is his expertise in the field of human microbiome.

https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/haifeng-xu

Ozlem Yildiz is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. Dr. Yildiz’s research studies the economics of and process improvements in service systems with a particular focus on applications in healthcare systems. In particular, her research concentrates on alleviating the congestion in service systems such as hospital Emergency Departments through designing payment schemes and process improvements. She has worked closely with the Emergency Department and Transporter System of the University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital. Dr. Yildiz’s research employs the methods of queueing theory,

game theory, simulation and data analysis.

Jianhui Zhou is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics in the College of Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on statistical modeling of data from health studies. Specifically, Dr. Zhou developed statistical methods for longitudinal and functional data, and applied them to modeling growth curves collected from a cohort of children in a developing country who were at risk of malnutrition and infectious diseases. The developed methods help to identify children with growth faltering at early stage and select the associated risk factors, and facilitate timely medical interventions to improve the health of children at the risk of infectious diseases.